


Fangan Ronpa: A Supplement

by Craftsdwarf



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Advice, Dangan Ronpa Spoilers, Guide, Super Dangan Ronpa 2 Spoilers, Writing, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-21 05:32:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6040138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Craftsdwarf/pseuds/Craftsdwarf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, you want to write a Fangan Ronpa? Or maybe you've already written one. Maybe you're somewhere in between! Either way, I learned a few things from my writing my own, and here I hope to share some of what I learned.</p><p>Be sure to read the comments for some good discussions!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. General Advice, Overview, and Common Mistakes

So, you want to write a Fangan Ronpa? Or maybe you've already written one and are looking for some advice; who's asking?  
  
Now, who am I to give you advice? Truth be told, I don't read a lot of Fanfiction. I have, however, written not one, but a full trilogy: [Hope's Freedom is Despair's Reward](https://archiveofourown.org/series/108557), which at the time of this writing, while it may not be the most reviewed or most popular Fangan Ronpa, it is the longest series, and the only one complete that I know of. I learned quite a bit over the course of writing them, so I hope to share what I know. For the record, while I wrote the bulk of it alone (condensing some of my knowledge from writers I credit later), these guides were read by [ReadingForever](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ReadingForever/pseuds/ReadingForever), whom offered some valued input in the form of points to add or evaluate on. He is currently writing the [The World After the End](https://archiveofourown.org/series/68178) trilogy, so consider giving that one a look if you haven't already! It's only 1.15 million words between our two respective series. :B  
  
I'm also going to add a disclaimer: Not everything I say is going to be right, necessarily. This is generally what's worked for me, and when it comes to some of my decisions regarding the source material, I feel as though I made my choices because it was the best option for me. I hope you at least take my advice and opinions into stock, but this isn't a bible, nor is it "How to make a 1,000,000 hit Fangan Ronpa Guaranteed or Your Money Back!"  
  
However, this is a guide to an incredibly narrow niche. Fangan Ronpas are one subset of the Dangan Ronpa Fandom which is a subset of Fanfiction which is a niche piece of written fiction in a vast sea of media. To give some very general advice:

  * Write! Even if just a little bit a day. Even if it's just notes or musings, write a little bit each day.
  * Read! And not just Fanfiction either: read about writing! Read other genres! Even engage in other media as long as you pay attention to not just the content, but the form as well. Knowing what is being told isn't as important as knowing how it's being told, but more on that later.



  
Heres a starting point: each of these two blogs have helped me: Chuck Wendig's [ramblings](http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/) and [Helping Writers become Authors](https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/)... Also, while I haven't made use of it, the [Dangan Ronpa OC Masterpost](http://magnoliachan.tumblr.com/post/103058475322/growing-shsl-oc-masterpost) seems like a good resource if you're looking for some help or inspiration.  
  
Now, this guide will be divided into a few parts.  
  
Part 1: General Advice, Overview, and Common Mistakes (You Are Here!)  
  
Part 2: Characters – Show Don't Tell  
  
Part 3: Overarching Plot, Incentives, and Theme  
  
Part 4: Free Time, Worldbuilding, and other Mechanics  
  
Part 5: Cases, Trials, A Note on Uploading, and FAQs

* * *

Now, to start with, I'm going to explain the biggest issue I see in most Fangan Ronpas. It's quite the large and easy pitfall too, but once you see it, you should be able to take precautions.  
  
**You are not writing a video game or visual novel.**  
  
There. That was it. Seriously, most problems I encounter come back to this.Let me say it again.  
  
**YOU ARE NOT WRITING A VIDEO GAME OR VISUAL NOVEL.**  
  
Inspiration is one thing: I personally found the value of Dangan Ronpa's inspiration to be roughly 767,851 words (and counting???).  
  
But you don't have a soundtrack, or voice actors, or game design, or art assets (okay some of you can probably draw, that's nice, but you aren't going to illustrate more than the character designs and some other little things).  
  
It seems obvious, but let's look back at the source material. Every element it contains was designed for an interactive experience. While you might be showing the same content (a Killing Game), you're doing so with a different form. Imagine sitting down and reading the finished script of a movie you never watched. It's not going to be nearly as engaging as the film or even a novelization of the same film would be, because that's not the intent. Some of things translate to an all-text format, but not all of them, and if you are unaware of that, than you risk:

  * Lack of distinction between characters (not giving the audience enough information, names blending together and not meaning anything without the reader needing a reference guide to know who's speaking)
  * Characterization threads outside of your control (Mentioned in Part 4 regarding Free Times)
  * Clunky scene transitions (Or lack thereof: try not to end every scene with a brief description of what the character is doing or with them going to sleep, or not end scenes at all and just continue without break)
  * Painfully obvious filler or padding (usually to meet a 6 chapter 'requirement')
  * Familiar expectations (Doing things too close to the games. For starters don't expect the audience to think memory loss is a twist)



  
Is your cast going to have 16 characters, including a Lucky Student, a protagonist with an ahoge, a muscular behemoth, a character with a foreign name, and a tanned skin girl with more cleavage than she knows what to do with? Is Trial 3 going to have a double murder? Is Trial 6 going to be pure plot mysteries? Is the Prologue just going over information the audience has already seen a dozen times by now?  
  
Some things can't be avoided. You're going to have a number of Trials (that's what people want!), so you'll have to have the (Ab)normal Days buildup, the Abnormal Days, Trial, and exploration of the new area to keep things fresh (probably). But you don't _need_ to have every trope and similarity between the two games. Why stretch out things to 6 chapters if you can tell it in 5? Why include a buff character if you can't come up with anything you like? Why force a double murder into Chapter 3 when it would make more since to have it earlier? Or later? Or not at all?  
  
If your story is good, readers won't mind you tweaking things here and there. In fact, that's likely to be what they want, even if they might not know that yet. There are millions of words of Fangan Ronpas, but if you do something different with its elements, you're more likely to stand out. But being different for being different is going to fail just as much as being the same for the sake of being the same.  
  
The biggest one is probably characterization. Introducing 15-16 characters at once isn't easy. How do you make such a large cast stand out in pure text format? In the games, every time a character shows up, you have their name right above their dialogue, a distinct voice actor, a very unique character design... Even if you'd never seen the character before you still get a ton of information, but you can't do that in a fanfic. You get one opportunity to introduce everything at once and that's it, otherwise readers are going to wonder why you've copy-pasted your character description five times now when you haven't even finished the first Trial.  
  
And on the note of characters, you probably have a main character. If there's one thing from the games you don't want to do, it's make them someone to self-insert too. While this is especially common in visual novels (especially harem themed romances) and not impossible to do in a novel (see: Twilight, whether by intent or by incompetence), your story will benefit more from having a fleshed out protagonist, as discussed in part 2.  
  
The simplest (though not easiest) way to try and avoid this is to try self-regulating. If something happens, take a step back and ask yourself: "Is this how the game did it? Is there a way I could this differently? Would that be better or worse?"  
  
I'll be going into a bit more depth in later parts, so thank you for reading thus far!


	2. Characters - Show Don't Tell

Okay, into the meat of things! So you want to start with a Fangan Ronpa and...well, to be honest, you probably have a mental image of what some of your OCs look like, maybe bits of how they act too. That's cool! But you also have 15 more to come up with. Let's start with making them, shall we?  
  
In true Dangan Ronpa fashion, they probably have a Talent, and that's as good a starting point as any! In fact, write down a bunch. Got 16? Good, now go for 20, just in case. You might need them.

Now, over the course of your planning stages, you're likely going to come up with their personalities, appearances, backstories, some plot points the important ones end up in...maybe you'll give them Report Cards!

But what should you be looking for? Here, let's ask a few questions:

  * What is their Talent? Does it make sense for them to have their Talent? If they are a Doctor or Lawyer, you'll have to explain how someone that young found that profession. For instance, Tsumiki Mikan is not a Doctor or Nurse in the original Japanese, but rather the 'Health Committee Member', implying she's connected to her High School rather than a legitimate medical institution. If they're a Hope's Peak Student, then they have to be famous enough to be scouted in some way. Kirigiri Kyoko wouldn't have been scouted unless she publicly revealed her skills to the school on purpose, as the world does not often hear of the Kirigiri Family. Be careful when it comes to the like of Thieves and Assassins, who risk their freedom if they are well known.
  * How does their Talent factor in to their backstory? How did their experiences in earning their Talent affect them or those around them? What kind of secrets do they have? Why might they be willing to kill. What could kill them? If you stumble on something particularly important, you have some building blocks for a later Trial or Incentive.
  * How does their backstory fit to their personality? Their experiences and influence from those around them are going to influence how they act and feel in various scenarios. Just be careful when planning it out: often times, personality will develop as you write it, sometimes even if you originally intended it to be different. This isn’t always a bad thing! If the personality you had in mind just isn’t coming out, then change might be a good thing. There are risks though, especially if you’re only discovering this as you update the fic. Once you find out the character doesn't have as much substance to them halfway through the story, it can be harder to change if said half is already uploaded. I'd recommend writing down personality bits that relate to your plans, then try writing some practice scenes with them if you worry, triply so if they or certain faucets of their personality are important. If they aren't turning out how you like, rethink them, or just let yourself loose and see if you like what comes of it.
  * Are they flawed characters? How do you plan to have those flaws become meaningful? An example of a character without meaningful flaws might be Nanami Chiaki. Her falling asleep and becoming engrossed in video games never makes her less likable or causes problems: she never skips investigation to play games or falls asleep through half the Trial. Don't make your characters Nanami. Their flaws should lead to meaningful reactions from the world, be it from characters or setting. Someone with a short trigger temper might be exploited by Monokuma or a cunning Culprit. Someone who's socially awkward isn't going to have very strong relationships, and might be alone when the stakes are high. Someone less clever or intelligent isn't going to be as useful during the Trials. Just because a trait doesn’t have any immediate plot or character relation points to tie too doesn’t mean you should chop it though. Sometimes it can be good for fleshing a character out, of it might affect things in unexpected ways as you write. However, when you're planning those flaws and overall personality, be warned if they're the type of character that isn't nice normally but is actually kind of a good person, since in my experience, those types of characters have their flaws melt away in the stressful situation, and if the plot is that type of situation then their flaws are never really going to come to light!
  * Are they too flawed? A character who is too flawed isn't going to be likable (see: the cast of Legend of Korra, or Full Metal Alchemist in my less popular opinion). They'll have to have some good points too, even if you have to dig for them. If you do plan for a character to become nicer of the course over the story be sure to let them have the time for the their arc, otherwise they'll die unmemorable and hated. And like with flaws, good personality points should have purpose and draw reactions from setting and other characters. Diligent characters are probably going to help in the Investigations and Trials, regardless of how good at they are at it, for example.
  * While having many traits can mean the character is fleshed out, if you aren’t careful they might feel scattered, or at worst inconsistent. If a trait is getting in the way of your story, than something needs to give.



Also, don't be afraid to change things in the planning stages! If you get an awesome idea while writing the backstory, but it might be better under a different Talent, then change it! Planned for one character to die but are coming to feel they have more life to them than that? Change it! The characters will often tell you when something can be done better, you just need to listen.

Now, once you have 16 drafted characters, start separating them. You might have a protagonist already, or several candidates, and likewise for the Mastermind. Who's left? How many of them are you satisfied with, or excited to write? What about the ones who don't fall in to those categories of Protagonist/Survivor, Mastermind/Culprit, or character you really want to write? Or in other words, 'leftovers'. Can you pin down anything you aren't happy about? Try tweaking their personality, or add something unexpected to them. Still nothing? You should have a few other Talents: perhaps you should replace them? Or at the very least consider killing them off early...  
  
So, with that in mind, who is the protagonist? Some things to ask yourself or consider:

  * Your protagonist is going to be solving much of the Trials: what skills do they have that make this believable? If they're dumb or have other detrimental flaws you might want to rethink it. Their personality should factor into this as well. If they're lazy outside of Trials and investigations than no one's going to buy it unless handled well.
  * How does their personality factor in to their relationships with other characters? If they aren't at least somewhat social, it's not going to be believable when they have to interact with the other characters.
  * What might make the audience want to get behind them? Not every character needs to be likable, but if the audience doesn't mind them dying then they aren't going to care about the stakes of a Killing Game. What kind of goals or ambitions do they have outside of surviving? Do you think they'll have fun engagements with the other characters? (To share an observation regarding my own protagonists, the more lighthearted/less serious ones seemed to fare better in the favorite character polls)
  * How much are they going to succeed? If they fail at everything, they'll be seen as incompetent by the cast and reader alike. If they succeed too much then it becomes predictable and boring. [Emma Coats](http://io9.gizmodo.com/5916970/the-22-rules-of-storytelling-according-to-pixar) advises that "You admire a character for trying more than for their successes." Strike a balance. Let personal biases blind them. Allow the Culprit to pull the wool over their eyes until the contradictions become too much every so often. Note that the quote goes for any character you intend to be admirable.
  * What's their character arc? How does this tie into the themes of the story? More on this in the next Part. Also consider this for your other characters.
  * Do you have multiple main protagonists? One main protagonist but the occasional swapped viewpoint? Same viewpoint the entire way? Is the main protagonist going to be in a position to see every major event as it happens? If not, you might want to reconsider a single, fixed viewpoint. Scenes like Monokuma talking with the 'mole' Sakura in DR1 are exceptions, but if we spend a single chapter in another characters shoes and never swap again it had better be for a good reason.



Now, what about the Mastermind?

  * What's their motivation? If you're having trouble coming up with something good, try distancing yourself with Super High School Level Despair. A death cult doesn't exactly make for the most compelling antagonist all the time. Good antagonists tend to have motivations that you and your characters can actually agree with or understand, even if at the end of the day you think they're wrong. Showing your Mastermind to have just as strong a conviction as your main character makes for that much more interesting a conflict. Not that you shouldn't use SHSL Despair, but like with anything you use from the games, you need to do so with a deliberation that works for your work: not because the games did it.
  * Why does it ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO BE a Killing Game? What are other ways they could achieve their goals? If there's a good reason for them not to go through an overly complex Killing Game than you'll want to rethink.
  * What is the Mastermind doing during the game? Are they furthering their plans? Merely waiting? Are they interacting with the other characters? If you want to flesh them out, you'll want them to be in the thick of things, but there should be a reason why they'd be in such a dangerous spot. To give an imperfect example, compare Enoshima Junko and Towa Monaca. Guess which one the fanbase wants to push down the stairs? The little girl who ruined only one city and constantly tormented ally and enemy alike. Enoshima Junko ended the entire world, but she's not particularly likable nor hateable. She just kind of...shows up at the end of the games without a shred of real personality, and then dies. Twice. Another Episode isn't a Fangan Ronpa, but you see enough of her to characterize her and come to dislike her over the course of the game because of how horrible she is. It might be tricky to manage, but the primary antagonist could make or break your grand, conclusive climax.



So, now hopefully, you have 16 characters you are satisfied with, including Talents, backstories, personalities, possible murder motives, a likable protagonist, and a driven Mastermind.

In theory, you can get started, but I want to mention something about writing that all important first chapter. So, YOU know all your characters, but now you have to introduce all of them to the audience at once. You might have read a few Fangan Ronpas and noticed that it is not easy to keep all the characters straight right out the door. They (often) all have foreign names, and without being able to see an appearance that just yells "Super High School Level ___" every time they speak, just that name alone isn't going to bring to mind a character's Talent, appearance, or personality until it's been ingrained over the course of the story. How do you handle that?

Honestly, it's not easy, but here are some suggestions I can give.

From the character designs themselves, try charting out the spread of colors in hair, eyes, and perhaps clothes. If you're noticing a lot of common colors, consider changing things up! It's also worth noting that while the first two games were actually pretty good with having natural hair colors (Kirigiri's is described as silver, though it's not natural on teenagers, and Maizono's dark blue is described as black, while Souda's purple is dyed), with Nagisa, Kotone, and Monaca is Another Episode you can go full technicolor hair colors without having to worry. If you even noticed. I may have, but I decided early on that I didn't care, which brings me too...

What do they sound like? Try giving them distinctive voices. For example:

  * Polite characters may speak in formal speech, graciously refusing to use contractions and no doubt refusing to swear.
  * Regular ones are pretty typical. They just talk naturally, you know?
  * Rude characters obviously don't give a flying FUCK about contractions and all that noise.
  * Maybe yer character has a bit of an accent goin' fer them? Might fit if they're from tha countryside.
  * Th-they might not be s-sure of what they say, o-or be a huge b-b-b-bundle of nerves, o-or j-j-just have a s-s-speech im-im-imp-p-p-p...er.



Be creative and imaginative! I'll talk a bit more about voice in Part 4.  
  
Also, try and keep it simple! Seriously, look at some of the canon characters and describe their appearances in text. Some are fairly simple, but some characters like Enoshima, Hagakure, Leon, and Ibuki have designs that take more words to describe, and more words mean more information. When you're introducing 16 characters at once, you want to keep it down in any way you can. When you try it, consider this: upon first meeting, your perspective character isn't going to notice the other's exact height, weight, number of bracelets, amount of teeth fillings, tattoos partly hidden under clothing, or patterns on the underside of shoes. I personally thought a small-medium paragraph was generally enough: eyes, hair, skin, clothes, other distinctive features. Also, while you probably aren't going to have pictures, if you do, WRITE THE APPEARANCE IN YOUR OWN WORDS ANYWAY. Doing so helps further ingrain it in the audience's mind, and avoids miscommunication. While a picture says a thousand words, they might not always be the ones you want.

Speaking of ingraining: repeat stuff! After a few days without a new chapter, not everyone is going to remember every bit of their appearance, so repeat it every so often, especially during the first couple Chapters. Don't go into the explanation every other chapter, just do it bit by bit. Have one character toss her long black hair over her shoulder, making the person behind her sneeze into the sleeve of their yellow sweatcoat as some other guy's grey-green eyes twitch in irritation. You don't want to do it all at once like that, of course, but you have that little scene in your mind now, don't you? Won't it be even more effective when it calls back to the appearances and personalities of characters you've already established?

Likewise, though it's not considered ideal, you can refer to characters by their Talent, like having "Yamasunamizu you goddamn nerd!" ‘The Computer Scientist turned to look over his shoulder, disgruntled.’ This tends to jog readers out of their immersion, as it takes an extra step to get back to the name, while just a name or a proper use of a pronoun goes by unnoticed. However, if you're using it to help the reader remember early on, it might not be a bad idea, especially if we haven't seen the character in a while. But later on when everyone knows who's left, you should probably be cutting back.

Lastly, while it's more of a band-aid, I supplied a pastebin link with my stories that listed the Report Cards (personal example [here](http://pastebin.com/PiWiRcdt)), with names, Talent, the stuff like height, weight, likes, etc. But I also included a section for appearance! One reader liked this as they were able to keep it open and refer to it early on to help them memorize the characters. However, as I said: it's only a band-aid. It's not going to fix your problems, but it can help. Even if you don't do it, try to at least have the decency of introducing all of your characters in one chapter so willing readers can refer to that instead of bouncing around 2-3 chapters of introductions while trying to recall whether 'Yoshitsunekaze' was the Greengrocer or the Bug Spray Manufacturer.

However, recall that you do have 16 characters or so. You're probably only going to have 6 when things are all said or done (give or take), so with that in mind, you have to realize who's getting focus, who isn't, and when. Yes, that one asshole is fun to write, but he's got the whole fic to be a dick and maybe even learn to be less of a dick! Consider pulling him back for those early chapters and let other characters who won't last that long do things. Be warned though, if it's too blatant, savvy readers might catch on that the character you're giving more time too might end up on the block soon. However, in that first chapter, where you have the least amount of time due to the amount of characters, striking that balance might be tricky when it comes to the first Culprit and Victim. Once you're over that hurdle though, it only gets easier as you continue writing with a shrinking cast of already established characters.

So, with all those points in mind, hopefully you can make your cast and show them off effectively too!  
  
Oh, right, showing. And telling. What's the difference? Here's an example.

  * She was very excited! She couldn't believe the news she'd just received!
  * "Kyaaaa! I can't believe it!" she squealed. Hands brought up to her smiling face, she trembled before beginning to bounce lightly, as if trying to keep herself from jumping through the ceiling.



Well, taking a look, they both tell about the same story, but which did you like reading more? Speaking from my own standpoint, I enjoyed writing the second one more, so I hope you liked reading it more! And if you did, I imagine it was because it leaves more to the imagination. I never directly stated that she'd just now received some very good news, but by her reaction, you could probably guess.

But by comparison, the first version is just so...stiff. Bland. I even tried to add exclamation marks but I don't think it helped. There's nothing gripping or mysterious about it. You're not feeling any excitement, so why should you care about the news our unnamed heroine just received?

Leaving things to the audience is why you engage in things, isn't it? You continue watching or reading to add to what you know about a world, and simply being told is just unsatisfying, like being handed the Football World Cup (international you silly Americans) despite having not touched a football in years.

So, how does this translate to your works? Well, it's something all writers need to tussle with. "Do I need to show this? Can I tell this? Should I?"

Telling can give you much more information in much fewer words. Go look up a summary of a Film or novel on Wikipedia: it's far shorter, is it not? But it's pure 'tell' with no 'show', so it's not even remotely compelling compared to what it's summarizing. There are places for telling rather than showing. What if hours/days/weeks/years pass? You shouldn't show all of that: it would be mind numbing! And even if you are showing something important, there is 'too much' when it comes to words. If I were actually writing the example scene into a work, I'd likely tone it down a bit, or spread it out over a paragraph or two.

But then what should you show? And what should you tell?

As a general rule, if it's interesting, like the action/reaction/interaction of a character, an important event, or a piece of the setting, it should shown. If it's not particularly interesting, or you can't figure out how to show it by the time you need the audience to know it, it should be told.

While events and interactions are fairly straightforwards to show, how do you show setting? We talk about that in Part 4. Telling isn't so hard: you can have a character whom knows about the area describe it. But what about things the characters don't know? Let's us SDR2 as an example. It's setting is not Jabberwock Island, but rather a virtual facsimile. This was hinted at through things like inconsistencies with the real world, such as Monokuma rock, Monokuma's abilities to sprout an elevator from anywhere, and the lack of a Future Foundation Headquarters on the center island. Even if you don't know why, you know something's up. Note that this may not apply to you, but failing to show such things that are omnipresent before it becomes relevant may make the reader feel as though it came from nowhere, and if not properly addressed it can ruin things for them.

Now, with Part 2 done, next we're going to talk about Theme, among other things, though we'll return to characters in Part 4. Thank you for reading and see you next time!


	3. Overarching Plot, Incentives, and Theme

But what does it _mean_?

So, your characters are stuck in a place and someone really wants them to off each other. Why? You already covered some of this with the Mastermind, but now you really want to get into the nitty gritty:

  * What does the Mastermind's goal mean for the rest of the setting? That is, beyond the bubble you characters are trapped in. What are the consequences? What are the stakes beyond the lives of the other characters?
  * Speaking of setting, does it take place the canon? Are things happening just outside of view from the games or are your characters practically rubbing shoulders with the canon ones? Does it take place in another country? Or another universe/timeline entirely? These will likely factor into the plot's impact and consequences. And be warned: an AU doesn't give you a free pass to do what the canon did without good reason.
  * What kind of mysteries are there to be answered? Remember: the audience is already familiar with two Killing Games. Having amnesia, being trapped in a place for an unknown reason...these mysteries are familiar. What else do you have going on? Does the audience care? Can you get to these mysteries over the course of the story? Keep in mind, these questions should be brought up early on. If nothing happens in Chapter 1 that isn't expected by the nature of a Fangan Ronpa, you risk not being attention grabbing enough, even if readers will likely read on anyway.
  * Can't think of anything? Replay the franchise! Grab something brought up before and flesh it out! Try out other games or works in similar genres! Murder mysteries are everywhere: Ace Attourney and Umineko come to mind as far as visual novels go. If you want general mysteries, try the Infinity Series (Never 7 being the first) or Zero Escape. If you want 'kids in dangerous situations', Hunger Games and Battle Royale are rather well known, Lord of the Flies is the first notable work of the kind, and Infinite Ryvius is good though less well known.



As for delivering the information, once again, you can look to the canon. There were various files scattered around Jabberwock, be it on paper or on computer screen, that hinted to things, like the Worst Incident, the events of DR1, or the changes to the island due to Future Foundation. There might also be simpler, more elegant ways to share information! DR2 also had (intentional) graphical glitches and oddities: the opening sequence in particular with the classroom door in the middle of nowhere is a your first indicator something is off. To give an example from DR1, look at the steel plated windows: more often than not, the nuts binding the bolts in place are visible from the inside, hinting that they were sealed in from the inside, and this is present in the first room of the school we see.

In general with foreshadowing, I was unable to find it, but I can paraphrase a quote that sums it up well. "When there's a twist, it has to be the last thing a reader expects; after it settles down in their mind, it has to be the only thing that makes sense." Sure, the Mastermind being revealed to be an alien makes for something unexpected, but if it comes from nowhere it's going to be confusing rather than shocking, then frustrating at worst or unsatisfying at best.

Now, since you've got your Mastermind and what they're doing a bit more clear cut, you're probably getting closer to the Theme. No, not a theme song (though they might have one, who knows?), but rather, the central ideas of your story. In DR1 it was Hope, in SDR2 it was Future. It doesn’t have to be a single word though, themes can be longer and more complex, but for the ease of things, let's break down DR1′s surface theme for a moment.

In DR1, Enoshima Junko weaponized Despair. Her incentives fit this as she tried to get the main characters to succumb to their Despair and stay in Hope's Peak forever rather than find their freedom in the climax. However, Naegi inspires everyone to be optimistic, most of the characters agreeing and moving on.

So, that was a rather basic information from memory of a game I haven't replayed in over a year, but it's a starting point. Think about your Mastermind again: do they have some particular idea they're vying for? Without spoiling things, in the first of my fics I really made an attempt at a theme, I would describe it as 'Live no matter what', while the Mastermind was very willing to die for their cause.

With that in mind:

  * How does the main character oppose, or learn to oppose, this ideal? Naegi was always Hopeful, while Hinata decides to charge towards his Future thanks to Nanami. This will serve as your main characters 'character arc', be it static or otherwise. A static character arc is like Naegi's: he starts out Hopeful, has his Hopes challenged through the Killing Game, and ends up sticking to his beliefs. Hinata, lacking in Talent, went to Hope's Peak to try and find himself, but Nanami helps him realize that Talent didn't matter with coming to terms with his Future. On the other side, Enoshima wanted the group to cower in the school while Kamukura would rather have Hinata end himself and allow Enoshima to take control, rather than have any kind of Future.
  * What about the other survivors? While it won't be given as much focus as the main character's, they should have an arc as well. Just because the canon wasn't able to give an arc to everyone (Fukawa...) doesn't mean you should be exempt if you really want to put your all in it.
  * What about other characters? An arc doesn’t have to be a positive change: they can spiral downward, but they should still reinforce your theme in some way. In the first game, the Culprits often went for those seeds of Despair and died for it.



Honestly, theme isn't something often looked for in Fanfiction, and I'm not necessarily well versed in it myself. I'd recommend looking into it on your own and thinking about what you might do, or try not to worry about it and hope something emerges naturally. Sometimes you won't know about your theme until the climax! Also, ‘theme’ and ‘message’ are two different things. To put it as simply as I can manage, theme is the subjects being broached (hope, trust, injustice, monotony, truth) while message is not stated, but interpreted from the story’s attempt at those themes. For instance, if Naegi instead decided to stay in school, ‘Hoping’ they’d be fine in side, then one might infer that ‘Hope means staying inside and praying nothing bad happens, real life is scary’.

Back to the advice, if you do try to use a theme, Incentive is a good way to help deliver it. SDR2 didn't really utilize it, and DR1 could have done better, so let me use an attempt of mine as an example.

As mentioned before, the Theme was 'Live no matter what'. For most of the survivors, in the final Trial, they were faced with a chance to die, and each had a reason they might be willing to give their lives up, even aside from the apocalypse. This choice was also the culmination of the character arcs built up over the course of the story.

For the incentives, they each represented one type of desire relatable to human life: love, hate, fear, shelter, sustenance. Each of the prime actors for each of these cases acted on that desire for an aspect of Life, and met Death as a result, which the Mastermind used to support their argument. This meant that any character arcs or moments tied in to the incentives also tied in to the overall theme.

Could I have done it better? Possibly. Can you do better? I hope so! That means that the fanwork community will be getting an enjoyable and worthwhile work, I hope.

But like with foreshadowing, themes and messages work if you don't bash your audience over the head with it. Dangan Ronpa quite literally weaponize it's theme (Naegi literally shoots Hope bullets), while works of literary fiction will be far more subtle and let the audience decide for itself what themes and messages to take. Genre fiction doesn't have those standards though, and a sci-fi murder mystery is very much genre fiction. If you feel like you’re not doing it well, finish your story anyway! You’ll have an ending to look back too and compare to what you do next, which is better than having nothing to look back to and going in blind once again.

Next time we're going into the setting of your Killing Game and the other mechanics. Thank you for reading!


	4. Free Time, Worldbuilding, and other Mechanics

Do you want to spend Free Time with Craftsdwarf?

y/ **N**

;~;

...Okay let's just talk about Free Times.

So, as you may know, in the source material, the game allows you some freedom to choose to hang out with the other characters after giving them a gift that you knew they liked through ~~that cheat sheet~~ careful consideration of the character's personality alongside trial and error. Needless to say, most writers just skip that and let the readers vote, giving them some neat interactivity with the work they're reading and allowing them to see more of the characters they are interested in!

Now, while I like writing the Free Times as much as anything, they are a tool with a specific function in the game, and if not used carefully you may fall into a huge pitfall. See, in the game, you can do one thing that a Fanfic writer cannot imitate: replaying Chapters to see all Free Times. In the context of the games, there's nothing wrong: players going out of their way to see all the content and earn achievements isn't just normal, it's expected. However, this doesn't work in Fanfiction, as there is only one 'canon'. There WILL be characters who do not get Free Times no matter how many opportunities you allow. Someone will die before they get a chance.

Hell, that's if you get votes in the first place! If you try to update at a decent pace, you might not be lucky enough to end up with readers who will to take the time to vote unless you've already got a few Chapters under your belt. Maybe! When I wrote my first fic, I had to pester acquaintances uninterested in the franchise for Chapter 1, and ended up choosing myself for Chapter 2. Only Chapter 3 onward had Free Time votes honestly chosen by my readers. This doesn't mean you shouldn't do them, but you should consider the possibilities if things don't work out like you planned. Consider mentioning who you plan on using if you don't get any votes! The idea of getting Free Time with a character they don't want might motivate your reader(s).

And speaking of plans, lets say you're taking influence from the games when plotting out where your Free Times might go. Maybe you only have one Free Time per character, and they have important backstory information. Maybe they won't get to that information until a few Free Times have passed. What do you do when you realize that the reader might never see this information? Backstory can be very important in allowing the readers to understand and identify with a character and how they act.

I've seen two methods. One is to reveal Free Time information after the fact. I personally posted 'Design Notes' at the end of chapters which included Hidden Backstory of the recently deceased and other trivia. ReadingForever writes them out after the fic is completed and posts them among the rest of the post-fic extras. One of those may work for you!

But I also tried another method. I didn't share the unused Free Times at all. "What about that character backstory," you might wonder? Well, the answer is simple: I didn't include it in the Free Times. I simply incorporated into the main story. Maybe a character shared it before their Execution, or in a short scene talking casually with the main character like a quasi-Free Time. Perhaps it was of a larger significance in events. Doing this allowed me to worry less about how I would deliver this backstory information and keep the Free Times just as they are used: opportunities to allow the reader to see more of the characters they like. Not that you shouldn’t use these things to hint at backstory! But I don’t feel as though it should be your only method, otherwise you are limiting yourself.

Now, let's ask about the where. Where is your Fangan Ronpa set? In the canon we have a school and an island. As far as other fanworks go: there are mountain resorts, boats, campsites, space stations, circuses, menageries of other buildings. Does it matter?

Well, my response to that is 'does it have variety within your limits'? A circus might sound cool, but is everything going to be some variation of a ride or attraction? Could that risk feeling repetitive? The more you can change up the various areas the characters visit, the more types of cases you'll be able to do. Does a new area need to open up after every chapter? Or at all? It might be tricky to manage: one huge area would just be more information you have to give the audience early, and without the potential reveals of a new area to shake up things and kick start events or character moments, the start of a new chapter might end up feeling flat if you aren't careful. But with some areas like a space station or circus you might have to consider going small and finding other ways to shake things up. Again: variety.

Consider these as well:

Do you have a theme yet? Well, setting could factor into that too! For instance, with my previous example of Life, I set the Killing Game in a mountain resort, where (at least in Chapter 1) there was all kinds of life about through flora and fauna. Each of the levels were also tied to one of the four seasons, which is a cycle of life.

So, beyond what the audience sees at first, what is your setting, really? Is it a false stage out of 'Big O'? A virtual reality? Something else adapted for a sinister purpose? And as you might want to wonder for yourself, how does this fit your work? The choice to set DR2 in a virtual reality was done to hide the appearances of the horribly disfigured characters, along with the scenario with the methods to leave the VR in the finale.

Also consider the verisimilitude. Also what the fuck does that mean? Basically, if it's 'verisimilar' it has an 'appearance of reality'. It doesn't have to be realistic (is anything about Dangan Ronpa?), but it should follow its own internal logic. For example, look at Jurassic Park: one of its internal rules is that the dinosaurs have been cloned and modified with modern reptile and amphibian DNA. Is this realistic? No, but this choice is used to serve the narrative, both to explain how dinosaurs can live and, eventually, breed.

As for how this applies to your setting, consider the internal rules of Dangan Ronpa, be it Hope’s Peak or the post-apocalypse. If you use Hope’s Peak, readers are going to expect you to not contradict what they know already without good reason. As for your location, try to map out the area as best you can. Consider what about each area, feature, or zone was in the original design, why, what has changed since being adapted for a Killing Game, and why again. Keep space in mind too: don't place a secret passage to a 50 meter wide and tall cavern behind a bookshelf stuck in a library in the middle of the 2nd floor. I found that rough sketches of each floor or level helped to keep things consistent, and if you have a map, you'll probably want to go into some amount of detail during explorations to show off how spatially aware you are!

Speaking of explorations, I'll point out three things. One, these are great opportunities for both developing mystery and showing character interaction. Looking back to the first game, Naegi found the photos from the group's lost school days during these explorations, and he also tended to bump into his classmates, whom usually had things to talk about as they showed off things that would be relevant in the Trials to come. If you have plans for a twist regarding where they are, explorations are also good times to drop foreshadowing. Maybe they keep finding strategically placed books or pamphlets with hints towards some things going on outside of their bubble? Or perhaps they start to pick at the paint hiding the fact that their reality is not what they think? A scene used to explore isn't wasted, but a scene used only to explore when it could have been more can be considered such.

And what about describing things? This goes for characters too, but when it comes to props set up to involve in Trials, you have to be careful. For instance:

"The desk was laden with papers, books, a pen, and a letter opener lightly lodged into the wood of the desk, surrounded by the light scratches of an absent minded scholar as their mind wandered."

Okay, something stands out far too much in that sentence. Anyone could guess that the author might be trying to say 'this letter opener will be important', but now it's obvious, isn't it? When if comes to the often highly specific objects required for the Trials, it can be hard not to go into such details. And example of paying too much attention to things might be during the exploration of the Fun House in SDR2 Chapter 4, when one of Gundam's hamsters presses the elevator button. This scene is treated to a CG of the occurrence, so some players might have picked up on and guessed that Gundam might be involved in events to come, their scrutiny being rewarded in the Chapter's case. How to avoid it? If you're going in to a lot of detail, ask yourself if this needs to be shared right now. A letter opener can be glossed over, but something of more importance like a laser array or a laptop with a potential internet connection really can't. You don't need to share the exact number of Monokuma Chess Piece Bottle things there are the first time they're encountered, but if it's important, the investigations are a good time. And when it comes to importance, the more time and words that are spent on something, the more the audience is going to want to pay attention to it. Being super descriptive all the times can be overwhelming for both you and the audience. Sometimes a pencil is just a pencil.

And consider what your characters might do, and if they might believably tamper or destroy something that you might need for a case (for instance, dumping poisons down a drain so no one can use them), you may want to think hard about how to handle it. Maybe you’ll find something interesting in the meantime! Like with the poisons, perhaps anyone going to use them already hid some away, so when it’s discovered some were used, the characters who dumped them fall under unwarranted scrutiny.

And also keep in mind who's eyes the audience is looking through when we explore. This goes back to viewpoint and character voice as discussed in Part 2. A 3rd person omniscient view is going to be less subjective, but if you're in the eyes and head of a 3rd person limited or 1st person viewpoint: what things is the character going to notice that others might not? I worked in a grocery store for over 5 years, so if see something lying in the middle of an aisle at the store, I'm going to notice and react differently than a busy lawyer with their phone at their ear! I might see something I'd want to habitually pick up and return to the shelf, while a lawyer might see a lawsuit. Your Architectural Engineer is going to spot the size and shape of a room, while a twitchy Soldier or keen eyed Fashion Designer is going to spot the people within first, be it because of what danger they might posses or the fact that their suit doesn’t fit at all. This goes for everything else too: a guy afraid of girls might not catch a woman's eye color due to looking away, while Photographer might be bobbing around looking for the best perspective for whatever subject they've taken interest in.

Now, lastly, we have all that other stuff! The game had some other things going on aside from Free Times, like Rules, Monocoins, the Monokuma Machine.

The Rules tended to be narrative important, but what about your narrative? Look at the lists from the games, then think about what you might do for Trials, and you settings. What could the players do to break things? Like burn down the whole building to screw the controllers of the game? Could the addition of a rule like 'no littering' affect one of your Trials? Consider them all: if you don't see yourself playing around with the Rules, then you don't need to include all of them. But if you do have Rules, then be sure to be very careful with wording, doubly so if you plan to exploit a loophole. For that matter, if you don't expect a rule to come into play, be it either breaking or following it, is there a real need for it? The water turning off at night, for instance: are any of your cases going to take place at a time where that would come into effect?

As for the Monocoins and Machine, while you might initially simply think it better to just not have it, it might be worth consider. Do Monocoins only buy Machine uses, or are there other uses? What kind of things can the Monokuma Machine have? Admittedly, I only toyed around with it in one story, and never with a case.

But at the end of the day, when it comes to importing other things from the game, like say, the Tool/Sewing sets or door keys from the first game, I wouldn't recommend it without considering what you're going to do with it. Remember, your readers already know what happened in the canon: if you aren't going to do something different, why bother? Dash expectations! Put a spin on things!

That's true of the Fangan Ronpa in general. Where's the fun in just retelling the story of the game with slightly different characters? Changing them is only part of making your story your own. Every decision in the games went to supporting their narrative, so every decision you make should be towards your narrative.

I also want to talk about Report Cards, which were brought up before. Honestly you might find it fun just to explore your characters likes and dislikes, but also consider when you might get a chance to show them in the story, how this might affect character relationships, and how you can foreshadow or characterize. I will point out that you don't need to have every like, dislike, or blood type to be relevant. In fact, if you abuse it, readers might expect you to go through everything like a checklist, then either be disappointed if you don't hit every one or predict everything. If you have something specific in mind for a character, hint at it in their Report Card! Maybe they'll talk about something you might not expect in depth, or it might be ironic. As I've said, if you're going to do it, mess around with it! Make use of all your tools! To look at the games for example, 'Enoshima's' Report Card had a number of similarities to Ikusaba Mukuro's Hope's Peak File, for obvious reasons by the time you're in Chapter 6.

So, with all of that said, next time we'll discuss the fun stuff: Cases and Trials! See you next time!


	5. Cases, Trials, A Note on Uploading, and FAQs

And now for the fun stuff! The Trials serve as the most climactic points in any Fangan Ronpa: from the first murder to the 'everything on the table' finale.

So, when planning out your fic, you probably already had an idea or two for some general things, such as characters, overarching plot, and even a few Trials. You probably also have in mind potential survivors, which means you also have likely or potential Victims and Culprits.

So, for now, try to write out as many ideas as you can. Be as detailed as you care too right now. Your ideas might be as simple as "One character lures another to their room and tries to kill them, but is killed" or in even more detail like "Fujisaki approaches Oowada and is killed in the boy's changing room, but the crime scene is swapped due to a loophole with the entry method and Togami sees Oowada exit the girl's room ect ect ect". What's more important is that you have a good number of solid ideas to work with.

Now, once you have a few ideas, start with the more fleshed out ones, then try and pick some others that you can fluff up. As you flesh them out, you should also be considering what characters are going to be involved, what the incentive might be, and what other events in the chapter might add to your overarching story.

So, once you feel like you have a good idea of which ones you want to do, finish fleshing them out with a mock Climax Interference. Just use the character names and try and get the details down. Do what you can to spot potential misdirections, evidence, and logical strengths and weaknesses. A misdirection that a Culprit could reasonably do with give you more to talk about in the Trials. Evidence isn't just things relevant to the case: these things can't come from nowhere. If a knife from the Kitchen in the first areas is used in a later murder, readers should have known about the knife ages ago, even if it was just mentioned in passing. To give some other examples, it was established that Monokuma could self-detonate long before a bomb was taken from his carcass and used to char Mukuro's corpse. Oogami was murdered in a room discovered the previous chapter, so most everything involved in that case was present beforehand, even if it wasn't relevant to the previous chapter. The term 'Chekov's Gun' comes to mind.

As far as logic goes, just ask 'why' at every step. Why did the Culprit do things this way? Why did the Victim respond that way? Largely, you want to avoid the audience asking 'why didn't they just shoot them?' A complicated Trial is far more interesting to watch being solved, but if the Culprit could have done things far easier or made a really dumb mistake, no one is going to enjoy it. To look at a canon Trial, DR1 Chapter 3's was on the weak side. To many members of the audience, Celes' guilt was obvious the moment she started acting out of character to sell her 'victim' angle, and her complicated plan has zero effect on anyone but the characters. Not that complexity is bad, mind! However, more complexity means higher risk of tearing a plot hole you didn’t notice due to focusing on so much, or losing the audience. I tended to find that more complex Trials were so do to the number of characters acting in events, whether they knew they were contributing to things or not. This way, while there were a lot of actions, the actions of each character is smaller, and easier to make sense of, usually.

So, you have your cases, and have arranged them, assigned characters... This might change as you write, so if you're uploading as you go then try and keep a balance between following through with you've written and your current plans. Investigation honestly isn't too hard. You know your evidence, so what I tended to do was list it out by location. Then you just go by logical progression: if the characters have no reason to go to one area yet, have them hit the more obvious locations first before they find something pointing them in another direction. They won't know to check the shoe locker until they see the footprints in the garden after finding dirt somewhere else.

However, like with exploration, you probably don't want to only investigate during these times. At each location you need your characters to go to, plant some other characters in those spots based on what interactions might come to mind. I personally liked to pair up the prime investigator with another character, differing each chapter, much like I suggest with the explorations. It's a good way to give some other characters screen time! Even if they rarely have anything useful to add to the investigation, their dumb questions might set the protagonist on a certain train of thought, and the banter might be fun!

Now, for the Trial themselves. The characters all know the evidence, and need to piece everything together. I would personally suggest letting the characters do the talking: you know them, and you know what they know, so go for it! As more some pointers:

'Letting characters speak' means all of them, but at the same time you might have trouble if you force it. Characters that are smart and talkative are going to have a lot to add, and likely be the ones solving things. Characters who are dumb and talkative can still add things too! Like with the investigations, they can sometimes propel things along  by saying something with a hint of truth to it. The bigger issue is with the non-talkative characters, especially the less clever ones. Oogami Sakura had little to say in the three Trials she took part in, for instance. It's not a bad thing, but it's something to be mindful of, especially if they don’t do a lot outside of the Trials either. For the smart and untalkative characters though, they may have to be badgered a bit first, perhaps after they try to say something but change their mind.

Sometimes your characters might go off topic. Banter can had a bit of variety in the tone, but if it goes on for too long, either the other characters might get tired or the audience will. If you like what came up though, consider cutting it and re-adding it in another chapter! This probably won't happen often though.  
And remember, above all it is a debate! Have characters argue! And not dumb arguments either: the more reasonable things they ask, the more the audience will question what they know about the case, or even you! Sometimes someone might say something that you have to step back mentally and answer, which might involve changing something. This isn't always a bad thing: at worst it's a plot hole that can't be fixed because the errors are already uploaded, but at best it's something that you can use to flesh out and add to either character or Trial!

The trickiest part is likely the pacing. If they jump on the Culprit too fast, it'll be over before you know it, but this might involve them dodging around certain points of discussion.

On that note, lets take a look at the structure. Usually, the format starts with the characters setting up the scene as best the can with the known evidence (cause of death, murder location, and timeframe are often early topics). This typically ends with either a lull as they finish, with some questions they still need to ask, or perhaps the first accusation. The first one is usually for characters closely involved in the case, like Hagakure being framed in Chapter 3. However, the first accusation might happen even earlier depending on how involved they were in the case. Or uninvolved. Ghost Kirigiri comes to mind.

The next phase involves clearing their name, and eventually narrowing down on the true Culprit, perhaps even going through more accusations before settling on the final truth.

Then, once the Culprit is actively defending themself, they typically bring up all the shields and evidence they can until everything is on the table.

As for how you do that, there's no clear answer. Every Trial is going to have different evidence, different events, and different types of characters involved. When I ran into a roadblock and I couldn't come up with a way for the characters to figure things out, I'd typically go back to the investigation and add some evidence. If things were going too quickly I might remove or change something.

Wait, isn't that cheating? Editing chapters after they've been published is typically a no go, so let me talk for a bit about upload method.

For 99% of long form fanfiction, the chapters are uploaded in intermittent updates. This allows the author to get feedback as they write, ideally.

However, the longer they go, the harder it is to go back and change things, meaning if things aren't well planned, it won't be likely to turn out like the author hoped.

But it isn't absolutely necessary to upload as you go! This is typical for a number of reasons, but for me personally, I was perfectly satisfied with writing out the entire story (sans voted Free Times) before I even uploaded the first chapter. While this meant long waits between stories, it also resulted in breakneck update speeds and a more solid story thanks to more frequent editing. I could make a decision at a later point and go back and change anything I needed, resulting in a more cohesive story.

To break down some thoughts:

_Pros of uploading as you go:_

  * Feedback as you move along, which can help if you don't know where to improve
  * Fic is being updated across longer periods of time, meaning more visibility in the long run
  * Setting a schedule and having people waiting for the next chapter might serve as a motivator for some writers



_Cons:_

  * Risking a less well put together story due to potential oversights and unable to do major revising or editing once it's uploaded
  * An update schedule you could have a harder time following, if there's even one at all, which might be demotivating
  * Not getting any feedback might result in you wanting to drop a story before it's over
  * Fanfic commenters aren't often willing to give critical comments for fear of coming off as rude, incapable. Likewise, Fanfic writers aren't always capable of receiving a critical comments due to possibly taking it as a personal attack
  * Less frequent updates might lose readers



And when it comes to writing it all at once:

_Pros:_

  * You can write and edit at your own pace without worrying about update speeds
  * Update speeds at any frequency you want
  * Can easily go back and change things as you write
  * If you don't get feedback early on, you might as well upload the rest of the work anyway! What else are you going to do with it? Simply being completed or having a stock of chapters will draw in more readers



_Cons:_

  * If you do a series of fics, there will be long gaps between them as you write
  * Fast update speeds with high word counts might be overwhelming to some readers, but uploading it slowly might feel like you aren't doing enough, especially if you get readers who beg for more
  * Feedback will only come after you've written it, meaning it might be harder to apply to the fic without rewriting it
  * Can get caught up with editing and revising rather than actually writing (my recommendation: ignore editing at first, and instead keep a document listing things you want to go back and change, then change as you go through the now completed work)



Different methods are going to work for different people, and you might find even more Pros/Cons than the one's I've listed, or find a balance. Maybe try writing one Chapter at a time before uploading it, allowing you full control over everything while still steadily uploading? If you’re struggling with a Trial, or think it might be tough, consider writing the whole Investigation/Trial at once so you can tighten it up a bit before you upload it.

And while we're on the subject of the work, I'll point out the Word Count. A completed Fangan Ronpa is likely going to have 100,000 words minimum. I think that's a bit small though: character interactions take word count, worldbuilding needs words, Trials, etc. You aren't writing a little short story here. Whether you write it all at once or as you go, I would recommend not worrying about word count as long as you feel the scene has meaning, be it building the setting, a mechanic, plot element, or even if it's just characters interacting. Even a 'meaningless' interaction can help the audience start to care about characters they might not. If it were a professional work then it would be a different story though.

Hopefully you found something of value here: what works for you, be it Trial or writing method, is probably going to be different than what works for me!

 

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So, to wrap some things up:

 **Question by no one in particular:** "Will you read, review, and criticize my Fangan Ronpa/Fanfic/school essay/help wanted ad?"

 **Answer:** No.

 **Long answer:** Nope! While I'm flattered you might be interested in my opinion, I'm by no means a professional. I do not have the time nor the willingness to spend my time beta reading (but props to those of you who do!). If I come across your fanfic while in a fanfic reading mood, maybe I'll read it! Perhaps I'll read a few chapters, get bored, and move on, or I might read it to completion and give a review on every single chapter. Or somewhere in between!

For the record, being badgered to read a fanfic is honestly going to make me want to read it less under most circumstances.

 **Q because I forgot to bring this up earlier and didn’t remember until later:** Honorifics!? Halp!

 **A:** Okay, so you set your fic in Japan. But shit, what’s the deal with all them sanchansama thingies? Maybe you’ve seen others use them, but they probably aren’t Japanese so they could be using them wrong! Maybe your worried you might too.

And it is a valid concern. Whether you try it out is up to you. I personally liked them as I was able to show how two characters might feel about each other with how they referred to each other. Some writers might not want to mess with that business though and that’s fine! If you want to give it a try, I’ll list what I know about the Japanese honorifics here, but I’d highly recommend doing some research on it yourself.

First/Last Name basis: Do you use Naegi or Makoto? Again, this is your choice. First name basis is very typical in western society, but in Japan using a first name denotes a bit more closeness. Naegi is called by his surname with his classmates, but by his given name with his sister Komaru, for instance.

-san: The typical, semi-formal honorfic, usually likened to ‘Mr. or Mrs.’. Characters who barely know each other might use this with others, or as a sign of respect. Naegi uses -san with Kirigiri even as she uses the more casual -kun for him. It might also imply distance between characters, though not necessarily a harsh or tense one.

-kun: A more casual honorfic, usually used towards males. Two guy friends would refer to each other with -kun. It’s also used in regards to sunior/junior or teacher/student. Usually you’d use -kun with a girl or woman if you were their teacher or boss.

-chan: Used on things seen as cute or endearing, and also typically with girls. A guy probably won’t like being called by -chan unless they are a child. Asahina said Sakura-chan to refer to her good friend.

-sama: A more respectful honorific, especially when referred to royalty. Fukawa uses it with Togami because she sees herself as below him. Most writers won’t need it though.

None: Dropping an honorific, or using the wrong one, is often considered a sign of ineptness at best, and rude at worst. A junior addressing their boss as -chan isn’t gong to fly. A character being referred to by their surname alone might imply arrogant dismissiveness.

All in all, it depends on context and the demeanor of the characters in question. I personally attempted to use it myself, with results you may or mind not find accurate. I am no authority, so again, do your own research on it if you aren’t satisfied, and if this all seems like a load of clunky hogwash to you then I don’t think anyone’s going to mind you not using them!

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Again, thank you for reading! If you have any questions or concerns the comment section and my email is open to you! Thank you once again for reading!


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